US resolution against Sri Lanka:

'Unwelcome action, has sinister motives'

It is regrettable that a section of the international community led by the United States of America, United Kingdom and the European Union have initiated a national sovereignty eroding resolution against Sri Lanka during the 19th session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, the National Organisation for Protecting the Country said in a release said yesterday.

It said this unwelcome action, although veiled in language that appears to only suggest the re - affirmation of the need to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission of Sri Lanka, has sinister motives underpinning its blatant call for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures mandate holders to interfere directly in Sri Lanka's internal affairs.

Excerpts of the release: "The members of our working professionals and trade union organisations of Sri Lanka, view this US action and the UN tolerance of that action as a gross interference in our national reconciliation process, as well as a destabilising initiative that is definitely hurting the healing process in our community that is recovering from a traumatic phase of 30 years of terrorism.

"It should be noted that the US and its main supportive allies of this resolution have a large naturalised citizen group of ethnic Tamils of Sri Lankan origin, who form a substantially influential 'swing voter' power bloc in the aforementioned nations, and they have made unsubstantiated allegations against the Sri Lankan government's conduct of the anti-terrorism military campaign, and have thus brought undue pressure on the political leadership of those nations to initiate this unwelcome UNHRC action.

"Lamentably, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon initiated an unofficial, unethical ex - parte report that was prepared by the Panel of Experts (POE), known as the Darusman report, which by the UN's own admission was unsubstantiated allegations that masqueraded as credible conclusions. This UN panel never set foot on Sri Lanka, and only consulted anti - Sri Lanka, pro -Eelam, LTTE terrorism front organisations and their linked persons, who were the source informants for the contents of that report, and thus they were clearly motivated to attribute unreasonable blame and exaggerate unverified events to tarnish the good image of Sri Lanka through partisan testimony.

"With such obvious bias and one sided accounts, no self - respecting sovereign country or an international organisation or professional could entertain this flawed report seriously, and to find that it has now been used as the basis for preparing the present US resolution against Sri Lanka is wholly unacceptable at any level. "The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission of Sri Lanka recommendations have been segmented into four components for implementation and it is been done in a rational and reasonable time frame taking into account the ground realities and resources at hand. In fact some of the recommendations in the LLRC report were anticipated and have already been implemented, ahead of expectations, and it is unfortunate that the US and her misguided allies have not bothered to examine and review the progress of the work themselves using their considerable diplomatic staff present in Colombo.

"We thus call upon the international community and global media organisations not to be a pawn in this malicious campaign against our nation and to ascertain the real facts of each and every allegation and to appreciate the sincere efforts of the government and the people of Sri Lanka to achieve considerable progress that is very visible on the ground in the country.

"The herculean task of clearing over 2,046 square kilometres of civilian inhabitation areas in the North that were booby trapped by the ruthless LTTE Tigers with 42,000 anti-personnel mines and 227 anti-tank mines have been cleared up to 80 percent by the dedicated round the clock commitment of the Sri Lanka military during the past two years. This has enabled the government to resettle over 90 percent of the 292,000 internally displaced Tamil persons in their own homes and villages.

"The commitment of the government to restore the war devastated areas has been supported by the international donor community who contributed US $ 201 million in funds through 27 donor assisted projects that formed the mammoth expenditure of US $ 700 million incurred by the Sri Lankan government during the past three years to rehabilitate terrorism conflict destroyed roads, railways, bridges, schools, hospitals, irrigation schemes, electricity power distribution lines, drinking water facilities and homes of the people.

"It is a travesty of justice to ignore the ground reality by the movers of this unwarranted resolution against Sri Lanka, especially when one even considers the fact that barring 400 hard core terrorists in custody who are being rehabilitated, over 11,000 LTTE terrorists who surrendered to the military have been forgiven and rehabilitated and released back to lead a normal life in society. Democratic elections have also been held in the North and East since the end of the conflict, and several former known terrorist leaders of the LTTE have contested and have been elected to office and are today working in close cooperation with the government to develop their areas."

This statement issued by the National Organisation for Protecting the Country was signed by the Executive Working Committee including Most Venerable Muruthtettuwe Ananda Nayaka Thera, Rev K L M Mohan Sharma Kurukkal, Alhaj Moulavi Abdul Bary Mohamed Kaleel, D P Mendis, President's Counsel W H Piyadasa and Professor Sudantha Liyanage